AA international - Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission, Ethiopia

In November/December 2008, AA International Ltd provided the senior agronomist of FAO's Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission to Ethiopia.

Despite poor secondary season belg rains, the 2008 meher crop has recovered strongly from earlier expectations due to abundant rainfall in major producing areas which continued through October, benefiting late sown crops.
In 2008, encouraging progress was made by the the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD) and the Central Statistics Authority (CSA) in reconciling the long standing differences in crop area estimates through the EC-funded, FAO project “Support to Food Security Information System”. Accordingly, the Mission used, for the first time, pre-harvest planted area estimates generated by the annual sample survey of the Central Statistics Authority (CSA).
Cereal and pulse production from the meher season is forecast at 17.44 million tonnes, about 10 percent above the previous year’s post-harvest estimates. This is the fifth consecutive good meher harvest.
Increased use of fertilizer and improved seeds, low pressure from pests and diseases as well as the expansion in cultivated area have also contributed to the favourable outturn.
Throughout the country, grain prices reached record levels in August-September 2008 and began stabilizing or even decreasing with the arrival of the new crop, but remain still at well above average levels.
Using a conservative forecast for 2009 belg seaon production, total domestic availability of cereals and pulses in 2009 is estimated at 18.25 million tonnes.
With an estimated total cereal and pulse utilization of about 18.57 million tonnes, an import requirement of about 316 000 tonnes is forecast for 2009.